A win is a win. "There is no such thing as an ugly baby." That is the feeling I have after this one. But then again, should I feel that way?

The Seahawks destroyed time of possession (+11:32). They had more passing yards. They had more rushing yards. They had more first downs. Seattle's offense scored sixteen points and Carolina's offense scored just three. Cam Newton looked awful. He had just two completions at halftime, and finished 12/29. That looks even worse considering that he actually had plenty of time to throw most of the time. So why does this win feel a little lackluster?

Missed opportunities. Seattle is 3-2, which is kind of amazing because it feels like we've had two or three Superbowl XL games this year already. Seattle had "just" 7 penalties, but every single one of them seemed to come at the most painful times possible. Many of them were incredibly dubious too. Giacomini's "late hit." Okung's "hold." Obomanu's "hold." The non-call on Sherman for offensive PI. It was 100% total horseshit officiating. At least the Panthers got tagged for a bad call themselves when one of their deep pass attempts was not called for a deserving 50 yard DPI, but overall, it felt like the Seahawks were fighting the stripes in this game.

The other factor was more redzone ineptitude. I can't figure this out. My first instinct is to question Bevell's playcalling- but per Hawkblogger's research- Seattle actually had a very good red zone offense last year. And that offense was also ran by Darrell Bevell. Maybe our 2012 problems are just early season hiccups?

When Carolina got that pick-6, I said out loud "well, we just lost." Which I know was premature, because the Seahawks were dominating the game and were only down by 4, but it was just one of those games where the team was very good at finding ways not to score. Seattle had very few 3 and outs, but almost every drive seemed destined to result in a redzone field goal, a turnover, or a punt that was snapped 5 yards outside of field goal range. I won't lie, I was pretty testy by the start of the 4th quarter in this one. Enough with the bullshit, already.

Thank goodness the Seahawks actually won this game. I don't even want to imagine the meltdown here, and it would have been very much warranted this time.

But, they did win. And a lot of good things happened, too. So with all that negativity out of my system, here are some random thoughts on today's deceptively glorious victory.

Russell Wilson takes a step forward

Entering this game, I would have argued that none of Wilson's interceptions were really his fault. His first was an end of half hail mary that you pretty much expect a pick on. His second was a ball Doug Baldwin should have caught. His third was a tipped pass. His fourth was to an open McCoy who fell down.

That streak ended today. Wilson threw his first deserving interception, and unfortunately it went for six. He would later suffer a brutal fumble-ception on a pass to Marshawn Lynch that was as fluky as they come. That Lynch interception was also a poor pass, but Lynch had it reined in and then... wtf?

Rather than focus on the negative (Wilson now has more interceptions than touchdowns), I'd argue that Wilson- a rookie qb- only having one fully inexcusable interception in his first five games is actually pretty darn impressive.

Other than those two picks, Wilson looked great. He looked like a franchise QB. He posted an outstanding 8.84 YPA after entering this game at 5.7. He completed 76% of his passes. Seattle came into this game near dead last in 3rd down conversions, but today they were at 50%, and nearly all of them were on Wilson.

Did Wilson miss some open targets? Sure. But every QB misses open targets throughout a game. Even the elite ones do. Consider too that on a few of those occasions Wilson "missed" the opportunity because he was reacting to pressure and avoiding a sack.

Carolina does not have a good defense, but they did a good job of game planning Wilson. It seemed like almost every time Wilson bailed on the pocket to the outside, he had a defender on special assignment waiting for him. Wilson is at his best outside the pocket, and Carolina took that away. I really liked how Wilson responded to that by working within the pocket so well. Remember the Russell Wilson who used to flip out when a defender got within pool cue's reach? That version might just be dead and buried. The new version is fine with taking a sack if it means getting better looks. I like this new version.

Oh yes, and I liked the playcalling by Bevell today so much more than any of the previous weeks. He (with permission from Carroll) finally put a degree of trust on Wilson, and Wilson rewarded them for it. About time.

Finally, some smart in-game decisions by the Seahawks today

I loved the safety call late in the game, which 80's beard confirmed was a designed play despite the frighteningly high snap (the gunners did not advance downfield- indicating it was an intentional playcall). I loved the decision to run on 3rd down the play before, even though a completed pass for a first down would have won the game. I thought Pete read that situation just right. I also liked how the Seahawks game planned that goalline stand just right to keep Newton from running for a TD. I also really liked that Wilson roll out keeper late in the game. It didn't work, but it had the same clock killing result as a handoff to Lynch and could have caught the Panther's off guard for a huge 1st down.

Other random thoughts

-Carolina is now 2-5 in their last 7 home games. I felt pretty strongly that Seattle would win this game all week, but you should never take a road victory for granted. Seattle is now 3-2 with 6 home games remaining.

-All four teams in the NFC West sport a winning record. How often has that happened in any division after 5 weeks? The NFC West is a combined 14-6. Outside the division, the NFC West is 11-3. All four teams currently own top 10 defenses by almost any metric.

-Bruce Irvin barely played, and registered two more sacks, including the game winner. He's at 4.5 sacks through five games. I don't say this because of the numbers: I really like the progress Irvin is making right now. He's at a point right now where he might be even deadlier when he's stunting inside than when he edge rushes.

-Golden Tate had another good game. He had a pretty reception deep down the field wiped out by penalty, but later had a crucial catch on 3rd and long that ended up being the game winning score when Carolina forgot how to tackle.

-Sidney Rice and Zach Miller looked a lot harder to cut for salary reasons. I noticed Miller several times for his quality blocking and had nearly 20 yards per reception too. Rice looked terrific while catching 5 passes for 67 yards. That's pretty much the equivalent of a 100 yard game in this offense.

-Doug Baldwin had 3 catches! Even Braylon Edwards got a catch, and a key reception at that. The Panthers have a poor secondary, but I thought our receivers looked terrific today.

-Bobby Wagner had another very good game. Six tackles, 1.5 sacks. I must stress that Wagner has improved by leaps and bounds at attacking behind the LOS compared to college. In college, he had 1.5 sacks in 4 years that came from the 4-3 MLB spot (he played in a hybrid defense and most of his sacks came from playing a 3-4 OLB). He's already got more 4-3 MLB sacks in 5 NFL games than he had in 4 college seasons. Wagner was a very well rounded LB who's one weakness was attacking the LOS, and it now appears that weakness is becoming a strength. Not to overhype the guy, but you really have to take your hat off to this coaching staff and how they consistently get the most out of their young players.

-Carpenter looks very natural at left guard.

-I loved that Sherman forced fumble that took away a 1st down late in the game.

-How did Cam Newton throw no picks while Wilson threw two? Just the latest reminder that the universe is chaotic in nature.

The play of the game

After Alan Branch recovered Cam Newton's fumble to seal the game, my dad remarked that the play of the game was Browner's 3rd and goal stop at the 1 yard line. I thought he made an excellent point. When Louis Murphy caught that pass, he pretty much only had to fall backwards a yard to win the game. If you saw the Colts upset the Packers today, you know exactly how hard it is to defend a catch at the one yard line. I think 9 times out of 10, that catch ends up being a touchdown, but Browner arrived and delivered a huge hit, a hit that was just huge enough to prevent the score.

My brother disagreed, saying that Browner's forced fumble was the play of the game, because it shifted momentum and set up Seattle's game winning touchdown drive. Another good choice. I guess it goes without saying that Brandon Browner had a pretty good game today.

But to me, the play of the game was Marshawn Lynch's "wtf really?!" 1st down run on 3rd and 7. He got 11 yards up the middle on a play that everyone in the stadium should have expected a run on. That first down allowed Seattle to burn Carolina's remaining timeouts and milk the clock down to 49 seconds remaining. It's really hard to march down the field and score a TD with only 49 seconds and no timeouts. That run could have easily been the difference in the game. Without it, Carolina gets the ball back with almost 3 minutes left and a timeout.

Looking ahead:

Seattle plays two more games in the next 11 days, and they are probably the two toughest games remaining on Seattle's schedule (Patriots, @SF on 4 days rest). I don't know about you guys, but I'd be just fine with a 3-4 record so long as the Seahawks are competitive in both games. That said, they probably need a win in there somehow to feign contention. The NFC is crazy this year.

Last edited by kearly on Sun Oct 07, 2012 5:06 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Funny, because after the pick 6, I thought we would still win the game. Even after Marshawn's juggling act, I thought we would win. Our D was just not going to lose today.And, we were snakebit. Every penalty was a momentum killer.

I thought Obo's hold was technically correct, but so extremely ticky tack that you could call holding on every play by that standard.

Scottemojo wrote:Funny, because after the pick 6, I thought we would still win the game. Even after Marshawn's juggling act, I thought we would win. And, we were snakebit. Every penalty was a momentum killer.

I agree about the defense, but with about a minute left in the 3rd quarter the Seahawks offense was trailing and had scored more points for the other team.

Snakebit is right. Thankfully we were only snakebit for just shy of 3 quarters.

I would call the Browner forced fumble the play of the game, just because he negated any YAC, got to the reciever early, then ripped the ball out, then recovered it himself. I really like how well he is playing this year; opposing QBs are rarely targetting him at all.

Just to put it in perspective though, on the Wilson thing....you can say this is his first "earned" interception, but I've also counted 3 that were dropped that should've been picks (this season. 2 in the AZ game). Just because the defense dropped them, doesn't make them better passes.

I agree about the crap calling. I really feel like this game, the NFL was out to get us for the Monday Night "debacle." Seriously, it makes no sense and you would think the refs would be thanking us for getting them back on the field. Okung's holding call wasn't evense to a hold, by any angle. Even Perreria would have a hard time upholding that one....well maybe not. Obomanu's hold was marginal at best, and Steve Smith literall did what he wanted to with Sherman; grabbing him and throwing him down. Now, Browner got away with 2 of those with the replacement refs, but these refs were SO much better supposedly. Just goes to show you, they really aren't.

What does Red Bryant have to do to buy a holding call ? I've seen it in GB and here....guys behind him, with their arm looped around his arm in a half nelson, and pulling his jersey way out from behind...I see him lobbying the refs and he still gets nothing. PC should seriously put a highlight reel of Red Bryant non called holds together and send it to the league. He is so explosive this year, he has to be one of the most held players in the game.

Hawks46 wrote:I would call the Browner forced fumble the play of the game, just because he negated any YAC, got to the reciever early, then ripped the ball out, then recovered it himself. I really like how well he is playing this year; opposing QBs are rarely targetting him at all.

Just to put it in perspective though, on the Wilson thing....you can say this is his first "earned" interception, but I've also counted 3 that were dropped that should've been picks (this season. 2 in the AZ game). Just because the defense dropped them, doesn't make them better passes.

I agree about the crap calling. I really feel like this game, the NFL was out to get us for the Monday Night "debacle." Seriously, it makes no sense and you would think the refs would be thanking us for getting them back on the field. Okung's holding call wasn't evense to a hold, by any angle. Even Perreria would have a hard time upholding that one....well maybe not. Obomanu's hold was marginal at best, and Steve Smith literall did what he wanted to with Sherman; grabbing him and throwing him down. Now, Browner got away with 2 of those with the replacement refs, but these refs were SO much better supposedly. Just goes to show you, they really aren't.

What does Red Bryant have to do to buy a holding call ? I've seen it in GB and here....guys behind him, with their arm looped around his arm in a half nelson, and pulling his jersey way out from behind...I see him lobbying the refs and he still gets nothing. PC should seriously put a highlight reel of Red Bryant non called holds together and send it to the league. He is so explosive this year, he has to be one of the most held players in the game.

him, and Clemons... they both wear offensive linemen as scarves dozens of times a game with no calls...

Absolutely. Zach Miller was signed I would assume for his solid pass catching and he has manned up and done what has been asked of him, classy dude and a underappreciated player. As far as Tate goes, people were on here (I don't whore around other sites haha) talking about him being a bust and possibly cut. He was a great player in college whom it appears took a little longer to start producing in the NFl. He is a dangerous WR who I think will get better right along side RW.

Excellent thoughts as always. This game didn't feel nearly as "flukey" to me as it did to you, evidently. I thought we played extremely well, and would have absolutely dominated but for a few key plays and mistakes.

Wilson did finally throw a bad pick, but aside from that, he looked very, very good. At one point with something like 12 or 13 throws, his only incompletion was a throwaway out of bounds to avoid a sack. That's damned accurate by any standards. All his throws but that one pick were right on the money.

The Lynch "fumbleception" was a fluke play, but it was absolutely a great play by Wilson, regardless of the fact it ended up as an interception. Lynch should have caught it. It was right there in his breadbasket, a perfect pass. On that play, had Lynch caught it as he should have, Wilson would have salvaged a 7-yard gain from a play that was otherwise a sack. That was a very heads up play by Wilson, and he absolutely did not deserve the interception on it.

He also threw for 221 yards - and would have had about 50 more with that beautiful bomb that was called back for penalty. His fifth game, finally going over 200, incidentally lines up exactly with Flacco's progression, with the caveat that Wilson's fifth game was far better than Flacco's. There are still some areas of concern, especially in red zone scoring, but we saw marked improvement this week, something that will continue as the season does.

The Panthers were very lucky to be in this game at all. Newton should have easily thrown two interceptions. Both were gift-wrapped to our defense, and were dropped. They also got almost all the dubious calls and non-calls in the game. There was definitely some home cooking for the refs going on, and it showed.

Our defense is stout! Far stouter than the final score indicates.

World Champion Seattle Seahawks football. It's an addiction, and there is no cure.Les Norton - gone but never forgotten. Rest in blue and green peace, my friend.

I don't understand the love fest for our offense. We played better than last week but our improvement was from terrible to bad.

Today our defense held Carolina to a single field goal despite three turnovers by our offense and special teams. They also contributed three points, with the strip fumble that gave our offense the ball in field goal position. Despite this complete dominance we won by a mere four points. How are so many people happy with that?

AgentDib wrote:I don't understand the love fest for our offense. We played better than last week but our improvement was from terrible to bad.

Today our defense held Carolina to a single field goal despite three turnovers by our offense and special teams. They also contributed three points, with the strip fumble that gave our offense the ball in field goal position. Despite this complete dominance we won by a mere four points. How are so many people happy with that?

The "love fest" is a result of exactly that. We went from terrible to bad.

When you are sitting on a championship caliber defense being held back by a lame offense, any progress from said offense brings us closer to competing for a Super Bowl title. However, I agree in principle. Though, if you replaced the Panthers with the Patriots for this game we lose by 10 points.

--

Kearly, bringing this back to you and your (as usual) excellent summary, I thought the PF call on Breno was deserved; it was obvious and all cameras were trained on that hit. Also, you can't fix dumb. But PC can at least re-align 'dumb' by having a sideline "timeout" chat to get Breno's head back in the game and get him to play disciplined ball. Benching him to send and deliver a message was an excellent move.

And the penalty on Obo? Ticky tack for sure, and it reminded me of the 2005 Super Bowl and the OPI call on Jackson. However, it seems that certain "cheats" are the difference between the college and pro levels of play (read: in the NBA, players often are allowed three steps leading up to a dunk, aka the "Pro Shuffle"). Obo just got caught and called on it.

AgentDib wrote:I don't understand the love fest for our offense. We played better than last week but our improvement was from terrible to bad.

Today our defense held Carolina to a single field goal despite three turnovers by our offense and special teams. They also contributed three points, with the strip fumble that gave our offense the ball in field goal position. Despite this complete dominance we won by a mere four points. How are so many people happy with that?

"love fest?" Can the hyperbole get any worse? All I see is people liking whatever bright spot they saw. Yes, the performance wasn't very good overall, but going from 'terrible' to 'bad' is progression, is it not?

For a rookie QB in his fifth game who gets very few passing reps because of an ultra-conservative offense, this isn't all THAT bad. My theory is that posts of this nature are written while sucking on a lemon.

HawKnPeppa wrote:"love fest?" Can the hyperbole get any worse? All I see is people liking whatever bright spot they saw. Yes, the performance wasn't very good overall, but going from 'terrible' to 'bad' is progression, is it not?

You say it is hyperbole but I argue that "wasn't very good" is a major understatement. Our offense scored 13 points and cost us 7, for a net of +6 points over simply punting the ball every time. This was against arguably the weakest secondary we will face this season. If our defense was borderline top 10 then we would be 1-4 or 0-5 right now.

HawKnPeppa wrote:My theory is that posts of this nature are written while sucking on a lemon.

Sorry, I missed the memo where I am supposed to be happy that our offense nearly cost us one of the better defensive performances I have ever seen from this team.

I'm finding more and more reasons to chalk up our offensive woes to penalties. They always seem to be happening during successful drives, which at least shows that we're stringing 1st downs together. Who knows where Wilson's stats would be without excruciatingly timely penalties?

MontanaHawk05 wrote:I'm finding more and more reasons to chalk up our offensive woes to penalties. They always seem to be happening during successful drives, which at least shows that we're stringing 1st downs together. Who knows where Wilson's stats would be without excruciatingly timely penalties?

Good point. You could probably add +50 to Wilson's passing yardage and maybe another TD, at least, if the Breno holding call was missed.

AgentDib wrote:I don't understand the love fest for our offense. We played better than last week but our improvement was from terrible to bad.

Today our defense held Carolina to a single field goal despite three turnovers by our offense and special teams. They also contributed three points, with the strip fumble that gave our offense the ball in field goal position. Despite this complete dominance we won by a mere four points. How are so many people happy with that?

The offensive performance was much better than the scoreboard shows. The offense was generally productive, but some fluky plays went against us that stalled drives:-Our biggest gain of the day was wiped out by an unnecessary holding penalty. Instead of 1st down in the red zone, we had 1st and 20 in bad field position.-Our biggest run of the day was wiped out by a non-existent (or called against the wrong player) holding penalty. Instead of 1st down near midfield, we had 2nd and 10 in bad field position.-The interception on the Lynch bobble was when we were already in field goal range.

The offense had zero 3-and-outs, so even when drives stalled, we gave Carolina terrible field position throughout the game. The passing offense averaged 7.9 NY/A. Rice, Baldwin, and Miller all had season highs in yards and receptions, and Tate had another decent game. Wilson completed 76% of his passes for 8.8 Y/A despite his longest completion being wiped out by an unnecessary penalty. Those drive killers were fluke plays more than poor execution, but if the players continue to play like they did today those types of fluke plays will even out eventually.

I agree that our offense would have played a lot better if not for the penalties and interceptions. However, can you really label them as flukes at this point? Holding, false starts, and personal foul calls have been a consistent theme for our offensive line this season.

Maybe posters feel better about our offense than I do because they can more easily envision those mistakes going away. You can improve in any area, though, and I don't see why a problem with penalties is better than problems elsewhere.

Well, AD, the hold on Breno was legit, the one on Okung was shit, and the one on Obo was lame. Were there any false starts today? The personal foul on Clemons was at least a 3 point swing, and since we would have gotten the ball back at about the 40 with more than two minutes, might have been an even bigger swing. the illegal contact on BB was big, and for the first time, RW called a time out rather than get a delay of game.

There is improvement, but our team is still learning what it means to bring smart physicality. But, they are getting better.

AgentDib wrote:I agree that our offense would have played a lot better if not for the penalties and interceptions. However, can you really label them as flukes at this point? Holding, false starts, and personal foul calls have been a consistent theme for our offensive line this season.

It's not that penalties in general are flukes - notice I didn't include things like Giacomini's personal foul knocking us back 15 yards. The fluky aspect is that away from the ball penalties that didn't affect the play occurred on what would have been game changing plays. We had an unnecessary hold take away a 50+ yard pass. Carolina's offense had an unnecessary hold (Smith tackling Sherman on a run play to the opposite side of the field) wipe out a 2 yard gain. Even if the undisciplined penalties don't go away, they won't consistently happen at such inopportune times as they did in this game.

Carpenter had a false start when we were on our own 1 yard line but that wasn't a big deal to me. The holding was much more important (Breno, Okung, McQuistan, Obo) along with the personal fouls. I agree that Okung looked clean on the play he was whistled on, but I'll have to re-watch the game and see they didn't mix up the numbers before I blame that on the refs.

I think a lot of fans forget how hard it's been for the Hawks to win on the east coast. This was a stellar performance by the Hawks to get this win.

I'm In!

What attracted you to the Seahawks? “It’s a combination of what I believe the coaches are doing here, the atmosphere and what I think we’re going to do here in the future. I think we’re going to win and win a lot and be a championship team.” – Zac Miller, August 4, 2011

Seattle plays two more games in the next 11 days, and they are probably the two toughest games remaining on Seattle's schedule (Patriots, @SF on 4 days rest). I don't know about you guys, but I'd be just fine with a 3-4 record so long as the Seahawks are competitive in both games. That said, they probably need a win in there somehow to feign contention. The NFC is crazy this year.

kearly, what is it about you and your perpetual need to find reasons to accommodate losing that makes me want to piss all over your otherwise wonderful posts? If you aren't finding ways to actually advocate losing (Suck For Luck) you are waxing defeatist as above quoted. It's pretty maddening.

The other thing I want to add as a Random Thought is Seattle should have only allowed ONE Carolina offensive play on our side of the 50 yard line in the first half. That being ET's dropped INT on the drive that resulted in points. Incredible first half by our D.

"Some people here have been groomed to accept mediocrity and lame ducks, I'm on board with the vibrato!" -SouthSoundHawk "BFS is kicking ass in here." -kearly (8/9/2013)

One of the most dominant defensive displays I've seen since we got the team. Offensively, sure, we looked better. Marginally better. But since we were up against a pretty poor team, we should look better, so the jury is still out with me on how much was improvement and how much was Panther suckage. The biggest thing we can do to improve offensively is find a replacement for Breno. He is KILLING us. It's like Green Bay is paying him to screw up at exactly the worst moments. Not just today, but all season.

Mebane was a BEAST!!! Browner deserves the game ball, hands down. Oddly, the rushing game was sub par. Fortunately, sub par for the Hawks is still a pretty decent day running. If the refs aren't screwing us and Breno isn't screwing us, the offense probably gets at least 10 more points.

It being an east coast game offsets the Panthers being a sucky defense, IMO, so - taking in account the refs and Breno - I'd say we looked okay on offense. It didn't feel like it at the time, but when you look at the stats and consider all the factors, if we can play like that the rest of the year, we're going to win a lot of games.

Richard Sherman doesn't just wanna get in your head, he wants to build a vacation home there.

R. Sherman: "I don't want to be an island. I want to be a tourist attraction. You come, I take your money & you go."

bestfightstory wrote:kearly, what is it about you and your perpetual need to find reasons to accommodate losing that makes me want to piss all over your otherwise wonderful posts? If you aren't finding ways to actually advocate losing (Suck For Luck) you are waxing defeatist as above quoted. It's pretty maddening.

bestfightstory wrote:kearly, what is it about you and your perpetual need to find reasons to accommodate losing that makes me want to piss all over your otherwise wonderful posts? If you aren't finding ways to actually advocate losing (Suck For Luck) you are waxing defeatist as above quoted. It's pretty maddening.

You must be good at yoga. You are very good at stretching.

I understand yer trying to be modest here, but I don't think it's a stretch to say your posts are otherwise wonderful.

"Some people here have been groomed to accept mediocrity and lame ducks, I'm on board with the vibrato!" -SouthSoundHawk "BFS is kicking ass in here." -kearly (8/9/2013)

Scottemojo wrote:Funny, because after the pick 6, I thought we would still win the game. Even after Marshawn's juggling act, I thought we would win. Our D was just not going to lose today.And, we were snakebit. Every penalty was a momentum killer.

Did we even have a penalty that didn't wipe out a big gain? It seemed like every time we'd see a great pass for big yardage or a crucial 1st down, along came the penalties.

When do we give some credit to the Panthers for playing some good ball too? The fumble on specials was well done, the bobble pick took some pretty good concentration and happened in pretty good coverage, and the pick was a bad throw, but the CB did take advantage, and his coverage was about as good as coverage as there can be when a little corner is covering a land mass. Luke Kuechly should have been the middle backer all along, he can run that defense. Their plan to keep Wilson from running was well thought out. As far as people saying we should have done better against that ranking of defense,we did. But penalized ourselves every big play, as Kip points out. And that defensive ranking is suspect, they played consecutive games against New York, New Orleans, and Atlanta. There are some players on that D.

Also, I wanted to point out that the guy Kip calls 80's beard calls a real good NFL game. Tim Ryan always knows his facts, and his observation that it was Russell Wilson being afraid to make mistakes that was holding him back in the red zone was spot on. Tim calls games for the Niners in the pre-season, Played a few years in the league, played for USC, and is a radio host for Sirius NFL radio in the afternoons, and I think he, along with Lynch and Mayock, are the three best game callers there are right now. SOOOOOO much better than listening to Martz.

Awesome post. I would have liked to hear your specific thoughts on Breno and what the heck that guy is thinking/ vs what should be done if it continues. Seriously, I am starting to hate him. Real or not, these things are getting called on us. Both our longest run and pass called back on stupid penalties.

"Oh yes, and I liked the playcalling by Bevell today so much more than any of the previous weeks. He (with permission from Carroll) finally put a degree of trust on Wilson, and Wilson rewarded them for it. About time."

AgentDib wrote:I don't understand the love fest for our offense. We played better than last week but our improvement was from terrible to bad.

Today our defense held Carolina to a single field goal despite three turnovers by our offense and special teams. They also contributed three points, with the strip fumble that gave our offense the ball in field goal position. Despite this complete dominance we won by a mere four points. How are so many people happy with that?

Scottemojo wrote:Also, I wanted to point out that the guy Kip calls 80's beard calls a real good NFL game. Tim Ryan always knows his facts, and his observation that it was Russell Wilson being afraid to make mistakes that was holding him back in the red zone was spot on. Tim calls games for the Niners in the pre-season, Played a few years in the league, played for USC, and is a radio host for Sirius NFL radio in the afternoons, and I think he, along with Lynch and Mayock, are the three best game callers there are right now. SOOOOOO much better than listening to Martz.

QFT. I remember commenting last year on how much Tim Ryan impressed me as a color commentator during my 17power post game write ups. There is almost never a detail he misses or an insight he fumbles.

That plus he has a sweet beard. I wonder if he uses a tiny comb on it?

Scottemojo wrote:Also, I wanted to point out that the guy Kip calls 80's beard calls a real good NFL game. Tim Ryan always knows his facts, and his observation that it was Russell Wilson being afraid to make mistakes that was holding him back in the red zone was spot on. Tim calls games for the Niners in the pre-season, Played a few years in the league, played for USC, and is a radio host for Sirius NFL radio in the afternoons, and I think he, along with Lynch and Mayock, are the three best game callers there are right now. SOOOOOO much better than listening to Martz.

QFT. I remember commenting last year on how much Tim Ryan impressed me as a color commentator during my 17power post game write ups. There is almost never a detail he misses or an insight he fumbles.

That plus he has a sweet beard. I wonder if he uses a tiny comb on it?

Listening to him on Sirius, he is pretty vain and egotistical, so yeah, probably. Not only does he call a good game, during draft season him and Pat Kirawan are one of the best sources of information in the league.Last year, one of the things that impressed me was that before the season began, I saw and commented on TJ's struggles to throw the ball to the left. Then Ryan calls a game and highlights his struggles to throw to the left. Kinda made me feel like I wasn't totally stupid.

Scottemojo wrote:Also, I wanted to point out that the guy Kip calls 80's beard calls a real good NFL game. Tim Ryan always knows his facts, and his observation that it was Russell Wilson being afraid to make mistakes that was holding him back in the red zone was spot on. Tim calls games for the Niners in the pre-season, Played a few years in the league, played for USC, and is a radio host for Sirius NFL radio in the afternoons, and I think he, along with Lynch and Mayock, are the three best game callers there are right now. SOOOOOO much better than listening to Martz.

QFT. I remember commenting last year on how much Tim Ryan impressed me as a color commentator during my 17power post game write ups. There is almost never a detail he misses or an insight he fumbles.

That plus he has a sweet beard. I wonder if he uses a tiny comb on it?

Bar none Tim Ryan is my favorite on Sirius. The man recognizes that we got something cooking up here.

Tim Ryan is a rabid USC guy and Kirwan used to work with Pete for the Jets. They have very favorable views on this regime as a result, even when they have been critical of individual players (TJack). I like hearing their opinions on everything but due to that influence I like Carl Banks, Ross Tucker and Solomon Wilcots a bit more when it comes just to the Seahawks.

Jim Miller (Chicago homer), and Rich Gannon (player advocate) are decent, but repetitive and you will always know how they are going to respond to a question before they do. It's never the player/QBs fault.

Hawks46 wrote:I would call the Browner forced fumble the play of the game, just because he negated any YAC, got to the reciever early, then ripped the ball out, then recovered it himself. I really like how well he is playing this year; opposing QBs are rarely targetting him at all.

the most impressive this about that play is that Browner defended Cam and Williams (two of the best rushers in the league) single-handedly. If he commits to Cam too early, he pitches to Williams who breaks off a big run. Commit to Williams and Cam takes it himself for a big gain.Instead he times it perfectly, baiting Cam into giving it up and then he quickyl refocuses on Williams and makes the tackle for a loss and forces a fumble.Incredible

Scottemojo wrote:When do we give some credit to the Panthers for playing some good ball too? The fumble on specials was well done, the bobble pick took some pretty good concentration and happened in pretty good coverage, and the pick was a bad throw, but the CB did take advantage, and his coverage was about as good as coverage as there can be when a little corner is covering a land mass. Luke Kuechly should have been the middle backer all along, he can run that defense. Their plan to keep Wilson from running was well thought out. As far as people saying we should have done better against that ranking of defense,we did. But penalized ourselves every big play, as Kip points out. And that defensive ranking is suspect, they played consecutive games against New York, New Orleans, and Atlanta. There are some players on that D.

Also, I wanted to point out that the guy Kip calls 80's beard calls a real good NFL game. Tim Ryan always knows his facts, and his observation that it was Russell Wilson being afraid to make mistakes that was holding him back in the red zone was spot on. Tim calls games for the Niners in the pre-season, Played a few years in the league, played for USC, and is a radio host for Sirius NFL radio in the afternoons, and I think he, along with Lynch and Mayock, are the three best game callers there are right now. SOOOOOO much better than listening to Martz.

Agreed, I'd be surprised if he doesn't play MLB every game for the rest of the year, he was all over the place making plays